Third Finish for the FAL2016

Finished my Japanese Panel (Robert Kaufmann - Imperial Collection). The panel itself is beautiful and I used it to play around with my new Ultimate Background Stencils from Cindy Needham.

In terms of process this seemed pretty simple, just mark it, quilt it! The stencils of course made this very easy and quick to do...what I did not count on was the effect of the grid quilting on the rest of the panel. As I was quilting along, I realised that the trees started to puff out and needed some attention. So, what started out as a pretty straightforward task turned into much more intensive quilting...I went into each tree and loosely followed the clams that were already in there which took a bit of time. Also realised that the cranes needed outlining which I ended up doing with a gold thread...again, nothing major, just all took a bit longer than expected. The other thing that turned out a major hassle was quilting with a black thread on a black background...impossible to see properly even with very good lighting!

Must say that I was bored with this panel...it seemed to stifle my need to freemotion quilt...somehow I found it too prescriptive to follow the contours of the picture...in the end I had a section left in the middle which I freemotion quilted with a design from Leah Day's blog... 'Sharp Stippling'...well, it was supposed to be Sharp Stippling...not sure I got that right. Never mind, looks good anyway and on the black background it translates to just texture.

Took the completed piece which will become a wall hanging (still need to attach a sleeve) for a bit of a photo shoot this afternoon. Found a really nice spot in the neighbourhood reserve with an old wooden picnic table...perfect for photographing quilts! And bonus...involves a bit of a walk to get there, so exercising ticked off at the same time.

Cranes In Flight 23in x 41in

 Another shot where you can see the quilting a bit better

All quilting done on my Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.2 using Aurifil 50/2 thread in various colours
I used three different types of grids in the panel
- the Twisted grid placed in a vertical orientation
- the Clam Shell grid and
- the Three Lines grid on the bottom

Apart from that there is some Sharp Stippling in the middle and some pebbles in some smaller areas on both sides. All in all I think that this all works well together.

I really do like the Three Lines grid on the bottom...so simple, but so effective. This will be so useful for borders. It gives this really definite texture.

So this is my third and final goal for the FAL2016 with a month to spare. My original goal list can be found HERE.

Linking up to Eleven Garden Quilts for the 2016 FAL Quarter One Link up

Obviously have not got my timing right in terms of what I can achieve however wanted to go easy and not make it not attainable...I had said in my first write up that I would start tracing my Wholecloth project onto fabric if there was time left over, so this will be my next task. I am actually quite chuffed with my progress...if it was not for the FAL2016, this would have definitely not been completed by now.

Karin

WIP: Cranes in Flight

Well, things don't always work out the way you wanted...spent some time unpicking this week.

This is my third project for the FAL2016. I acquired this panel at the last quilt show and thought it would make a nice wall hanging.

Tried my new Ultimate Background stencils from Cindy Needham that I got for Christmas. For the sky part of the wall hanging I used the Twisted Grid (Papa size) placed on the vertical which gave me a nice amount of movement.

This turned out really nice, although I am still debating whether I should have used one size down (Mama size). I could have stitched this out with the walking foot, however after doing one line with the walking foot, I decided that this was too much hassle  in terms of stopping and starting and shifting your project slightly...so I freemotion quilted this, getting some very intense practice in stitching a steady line. However, I did enjoy this and it looks fabulous.

While I had secured some of the other parts of the project already by simply stitching around it, I had not secured it properly towards the bottom. Don't know what happened...maybe too eager to try out my grids...anyway, I did a whole section of clam shells only to find that I had pushed some puff upwards and the clam shells towards the top were too puffy and almost leading to pleads...

So today, I re-stitched that section after having secured the bottom with some quilted lines...problem fixed, however I must say, stitching them out in black on a black background was a bit crazy...I had major problems seeing where I was going at times and some of my clams turned out a tad wonky (not that you can see that at all)

I must say, I thought that I would enjoy this Panel more than I actually do...while I enjoy trying out the grids, I do not enjoy following the design and find it quite restricting and a little bit boring. Never mind, now that I have started this, it will be done. I did enjoy putting in some clams into the trees (are they trees?)...I loosely followed the printed design, but there was enough room for a bit of creativity and it did give those trees much more depths.

I might try one more grid on the side but the rest will be some background quilting, I think...much more enjoyable.

Linking up to Let's Bee Social over at Lorna's Sew Fresh Quilts



Karin

Second Finish for the FAL2016

This took a while, but here it is...the completed Tumbling Blocks baby quilt

This is my second finish for the FAL 2016

Details of the quilt:

Size: 41in x 53in
Fabric: Main fabric is an Ann Kelle design (Urban Zoologie) for Robert Kaufmann fabrics
Threads used: Gutermann for construction and straight line quilting; Invisible Monofilament thread for SID; Aurifil 50/2 for other FMQ designs
Finish: straight line quilting across the cubes with loop design in the feature fabric; continuous heart design in the inner border and more loops in the outer border.
Binding: Left over strips of fabric used which gives the whole quilt a bit of a lift

Particularly proud of:  Y-seam construction

Backing: found the perfect colour match

This is the second finish for the FAL 2016. My original goal list appeared HERE.

Linking up to Eleven Garden Quilts for the FAL2016 Quarter One Link-up.

Also linked up to Let's Bee Social over at Sew Fresh Quilts.

Onto the next project!

Karin

WIP: Baby Quilt

Quick update on the Tumbling Block baby quilt...finally finished the tedious SID and got on to the fun part...the actual quilting of the quilt.

Did some simple straight line quilting over the cubes. Used Cindy Needham's Ultimate Stencils (the 3/4in grid to mark my lines...so quick and easy! Then I quilted a simple loopy design over the hippos to de-emphasize the formality of the lines.

All in all, very nice, but a lot of work...forgot how much work it is to quilt an entire quilt just having done mostly pillows last year for the FMQ Challenge. This took forever!

I then decided to quilt a loopy heart design in the inner border. This is a design I am not that comfortable with and the best way to overcome this is to do an entire border

That turned out really nice and if you let go of perfectionism is an uncomplicated, fast design to use in a border.

The whole thing turned out a bit crinkly due to the quilting but I am hoping that this will ease a bit once it is all done. I like baby quilts to be quilted fairly heavily due to them having to be washed on a regular basis.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced...just read that Amy will take a 2 months break and is thinking of finishing off her weekly linky. Fair enough too as she has run it for 5 years and the work that goes into a linky is just enormous. So, 'thank you' Amy for all the work that you put in in running this weekly linky.

Also linking up belatedly to Let's Bee Social #110...was quilting for most of the day yesterday and did not want to loose momentum...

Karin